Lucid dream

This article is about the psychological phenomenon. For the Franz Ferdinand song, see Lucid Dreams. For the Tinashe song, see Nightride.

A lucid dream is a dream during which the dreamer is aware of dreaming. During lucid dreaming, the dreamer may be able to exert some degree of control over the dream characters, narrative, and environment.[1][2][3]

The term 'lucid dream' was coined by Dutch author and psychiatristFrederik van Eeden in his 1913 article A Study of Dreams,[4] though descriptions of dreamers being aware that they are dreaming predates the term.

Early references to the phenomenon are found in ancient Greek writings. For example, the philosopher Aristotle wrote: 'often when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which declares that what then presents itself is but a dream'.[5] Meanwhile, the physician Galen of Pergamon used lucid dreams as a form of therapy.[6] In addition, a letter written by St. Augustine of Hippo in 415 AD tells the story of a dreamer, Doctor Gennadius, and refers to lucid dreaming.[7]

In Eastern thought, cultivating the dreamer's ability to be aware that he or she is dreaming is central to both the Tibetan Buddhist practice of dream Yoga, and the ancient Indian Hindu practice of Yoga nidra. The cultivation of such awareness was common practice among early Buddhists.[8]

Philosopher and physician Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682) was fascinated by dreams and described his own ability to lucid dream in his Religio Medici, stating: '...yet in one dream I can compose a whole Comedy, behold the action, apprehend the jests and laugh my self awake at the conceits thereof'.[9]

Also, Samuel Pepys in his diary entry for 15 August 1665 records a dream, stating: "I had my Lady Castlemayne in my arms and was admitted to use all the dalliance I desired with her, and then dreamt that this could not be awake, but that it was only a dream".[10]

In 1867, the French sinologist Marie-Jean-Léon, Marquis d'Hervey de Saint Denys anonymously published Les Reves et Les Moyens de Les Diriger: Observations Pratiques ('Dreams and the ways to direct them: practical observations'), in which describes his own experiences of lucid dreaming, and proposes that it is possible for anyone to learn to dream consciously.[11][12]

Some have suggested that the term is a misnomer because van Eeden was referring to a phenomenon more specific than a 'vivid' or 'lucid' dream.[19] Van Eeden intended the term lucid to denote "having insight", as in the phrase a lucid interval applied to someone in temporary remission from a psychosis, rather than as a reference to the perceptual quality of the experience, which may or may not be clear and vivid[20]

In 1968, Celia Green analyzed the main characteristics of such dreams, reviewing previously published literature on the subject and incorporating new data from participants of her own. She concluded that lucid dreams were a category of experience quite distinct from ordinary dreams, and predicted that they would turn out to be associated with rapid eye movement sleep (REM sleep). Green was also the first to link lucid dreams to the phenomenon of false awakenings.[21]

Lucid dreaming was subsequently researched by asking dreamers to perform pre-determined physical responses while experiencing a dream, including eye movement signals.[22][23] The first experiment of this type was conducted in the late 1970s by British parapsychologistKeith Hearne. A volunteer named Alan Worsley used eye movements to signal the onset of lucidity, which were recorded by a polysomnograph machine.

The first peer-reviewed article on the subject was published by Stephen LaBerge at Stanford University, who developed such techniques as part of his doctoral dissertation.[24] In 1985, LaBerge performed a pilot study that showed that time perception while counting during a lucid dream is about the same as during waking life. Lucid dreamers counted out ten seconds while dreaming, signaling the start and the end of the count with a pre-arranged eye signal measured with electrooculogram recording.[25][26][27] LaBerge's results were confirmed by German researchers D. Erlacher and M. Schredl, in 2004.[28]

In a further study by Stephen LaBerge, four subjects were compared either singing while dreaming or counting while dreaming. LaBerge found that the right hemisphere was more active during singing and the left hemisphere was more active during counting.[29]

NeuroscientistJ. Allan Hobson has hypothesized what might be occurring in the brain while lucid. The first step to lucid dreaming is recognizing one is dreaming. This recognition might occur in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is one of the few areas deactivated during REM sleep and where working memory occurs. Once this area is activated and the recognition of dreaming occurs, the dreamer must be cautious to let the dream continue but be conscious enough to remember that it is a dream. While maintaining this balance, the amygdala and parahippocampal cortex might be less intensely activated.[30] To continue the intensity of the dream hallucinations, it is expected the pons and the parieto-occipital junction stay active.[31]

Using Electroencephalography (EEG) and other Polysomnographical measurements, LaBerge and others have shown that lucid dreams begin in the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) stage of sleep.[32][33][34] LaBerge also proposes that there are higher amounts of beta-1 frequency band (13–19 Hz) brain wave activity experienced by lucid dreamers, hence there is an increased amount of activity in the parietal lobes making lucid dreaming a conscious process.[35]

Some skeptics of lucid dreaming suggest that it is not a state of sleep, but of brief wakefulness, or "micro-awakening".[36][37] Experiments by Stephen LaBerge used "perception of the outside world" as a criterion for wakefulness while studying lucid dreamers, and their sleep state was corroborated with physiological measurements.[23]

Philosopher Norman Malcolm has argued against the possibility of checking the accuracy of dream reports, pointing out that 'the only criterion of the truth of a statement that someone has had a certain dream is, essentially, his saying so'[38]

Barrett found less than a quarter of lucidity accounts exhibited all four.[42]

Subsequently, Stephen LaBerge, a psychophysiologist of Stanford University, studied the prevalence of being able to control the dream scenario among lucid dreams, and found that while dream control and dream awareness are correlated, neither requires the other. LaBerge found dreams that exhibit one clearly without the capacity for the other; also, in some dreams where the dreamer is lucid and aware they could exercise control, they choose simply to observe.[1]

It has been suggested that sufferers of nightmares could benefit from the ability to be aware they are indeed dreaming. A pilot study was performed in 2006 that showed that lucid dreaming therapy treatment was successful in reducing nightmare frequency. This treatment consisted of exposure to the idea, mastery of the technique, and lucidity exercises. It was not clear what aspects of the treatment were responsible for the success of overcoming nightmares, though the treatment as a whole was said successful.[43]

Australian psychologist Milan Colic has explored the application of principles from narrative therapy to clients' lucid dreams, to reduce the impact not only of nightmares during sleep, but also depression, self-mutilation, and other problems in waking life. Colic found that therapeutic conversations could reduce the distressing content of dreams, while understandings about life—and even characters—from lucid dreams could be applied to their lives with marked therapeutic benefits.[44]

Psychotherapists have applied lucid dreaming as an application for therapy. Studies have shown that by inducing a lucid dream recurrent nightmares can be alleviated. It is unclear whether this alleviation is due to lucidity or the ability to alter the dream itself. A study performed by Victor Spoormaker (nl) and van den Bout (2006) evaluated the validity of lucid dreaming treatment (LDT) in chronic nightmare sufferers.[45] LDT is composed of exposure, mastery, and lucidity exercises. Results of lucid dreaming treatment revealed that the nightmare frequency of the treatment groups had decreased. In another study, Spoormaker, van den Bout, and Meijer (2003) investigated lucid dreaming treatment for nightmares by testing eight subjects who received a one-hour individual session, which consisted of lucid dreaming exercises.[46] The results of the study revealed that the nightmare frequency had decreased and the sleep quality had slightly increased.

Holzinger, Klösch, and Saletu managed a psychotherapy study under the working name of ‘Cognition during dreaming – a therapeutic intervention in nightmares’, which included 40 subjects, men and women, 18–50 years old, whose life quality was significantly altered by nightmares.[47] The test subjects were administered Gestalt group therapy and 24 of them were also taught to enter the state of lucid dreaming by Holzinger. This was purposefully taught in order to change the course of their nightmares. The subjects then reported the diminishment of their nightmare prevalence from 2–3 times a week to 2–3 times per month.

In her book The Committee of Sleep,Deirdre Barrett describes how some experienced lucid dreamers have learned to remember specific practical goals such as artists looking for inspiration seeking a show of their own work once they become lucid or computer programmers looking for a screen with their desired code. However, most of these dreamers had many experiences of failing to recall waking objectives before gaining this level of control.[48]

^Adrienne Mayor (2005). Fossil Legends Of The First Americans. Princeton University Press. p. 402. ISBN978-0-691-11345-6. Retrieved 29 April 2013. The term "lucid dreaming" to describe the technique of controlling dreams and following them to a desired conclusion was coined by the 19th-century Dutch psychiatrist Frederik van Eeden.

^Lewis Spence; Nandor Fodor (1985). Encyclopedia of occultism & parapsychology. 2. Gale Research Co. p. 617. ISBN978-0-8103-0196-2. Retrieved 29 April 2013. Dr. Van Eeden was an author and physician who sat with the English medium Mrs. R. Thompson and was also ... 431) in which he used the term "lucid dream" to indicate those conditions in which the dreamer is aware that he is dreaming.

^ abKelly Bulkeley (1999). Visions of the night: dreams, religion, and psychology. SUNY Press. p. 157. ISBN978-0-7914-9798-2. Retrieved 29 April 2013. The person most widely credited with coining the term "lucid dream" is Frederick Van Eeden, a Dutch psychiatrist who from 1898 to 1912 gathered reports of lucid dreams and performed experiments on his own abilities to have lucid dreams ...

^New Scientist. New Science Publications. January 1990. Retrieved 29 April 2013. The term "lucid dreaming" (which isn't a very good one since it means much more than vivid or clear dreaming) was coined by Frederik van Eeden, a Dutch psychiatrist, ...

^Psychology Today (1989). PSYCHOLOGY TODAY: APRIL 1989. Retrieved 29 April 2013. Society for Psychical Research, that the Dutch physician Frederik Willems Van Eeden wrote of having a "lucid" dream. Van Eeden may have coined the term, but it was Hugh Calloway, an English contemporary, who was the first to ...

^Watanabe Tsuneo (March 2003). "Lucid Dreaming: Its Experimental Proof and Psychological Conditions". Journal of International Society of Life Information Science. Japan. 21 (1): 159–162. The occurrence of lucid dreaming (dreaming while being conscious that one is dreaming) has been verified for four selected subjects who signaled that they knew they were dreaming. The signals consisted of particular dream actions having observable concomitants and were performed in accordance with a pre-sleep agreement.